Physics' 'rainbow gravity' theory would undermine idea of a Big Bang

Galaxy NGC 6744, a spiral disk 175,000 light years across, nearly twice as wide as Earth's own Milky Way galaxy. It is and 30 million light years from Earth, in a photo taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. (NASA photo)

Physicists have applied a decade-old theory about how gravity is related to spacetime to the question of how the universe began and identified a possible fault in the widely-accepted idea that the universe started with a Big Bang.

Adel Awad, of the Center for Theoretical Physics at Zewail City of Science and Technology in Egypt, suggests that particles with different energies take different paths when traveling through spacetime, which theories of general relativity hold is warped by massive objects. This contradicts current theory, which holds that the path traveled by particles is not influenced by their energy.

If Awad's theory is correct, it would mean that history extends backward infinitely, rather than to a singularity commonly called a "big bang," Scientific American reports.

The rainbow theory of gravity is not widely accepted, though physicists not associated with the research have said they find the idea intriguing.